East African Airways VC 10 accident 1972 Addis Ababa
 

On 18th April 1972, an East African Airways VC 10 registration 5X-UVA crashed on take off at Addis Ababa. The aircraft hit a car jack on the runway during a night take off, experienced nosewheel tyre burst, aborted the take off and went off the end of the runway killing many aboard. It was later discovered the main wheel anti-skid systems of the wheels had been incorrectly connected which resulted in significant loss of braking capability.

ICAO produced an accident report. Can anyone point me in the right direction to read the report or any links. There are links available but only to very much abbreviated reports.

East African Airways, Super VC10, 5X-UVA, accident at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 18th April 1972. Report No. AI 11/72, dated 1st February 1973, released by the Imperial Ethiopian Government, Civil Aviation Administration.

A 21 page summary of this report is contained in ICAO Circular 132-AN/93, Aircraft Accident Digest No. 21, published in 1/1978. I have a copy of this but I do not know if the truncated data would be sufficient for your needs. There are no appendices and only on of the original diagrams (the FDR trace).

You are correct in your assessment as the probable cause is given as:

"The accident was due to a partial loss of braking effort arising from incorrect reassembly of part of the braking system, as a result of which the aircraft could not be stopped within the emergency distance remaining following a properly executed abandoned take off procedure."

Here's a snap I took of the aircraft at London Airport (Heathrow to kids) in January, 1967: http://www.brendan-mccartney.fotopic.net/p34505760.html

Sorry for the poor quality - it was re-photographed from a dirty old slide.

Interestingly, it was an VC10 with brake problems which gave me a bad scare during my early days at Heathrow. I cleared the a/c to land on 10L.. it touched down part way down the extension and, in a cloud of smoke, stopped just as it reached the main part of the runway - shortest VC10 landing I ever saw. It had landed with its brakes on! How? Why? I never heard and the crew had made no mention of any problems prior to landing.

How to get 156 people in a VC10 cockpit?

Must have been an impressive landing. The only aircraft I ever saw land with brakes on was a tiddly little Mooney. Even so it produced copious amounts of smoke, did a very nice 360 on the runway and ended up on the grass.

Slapped wrist - I'm diverging from topic. :=

There were several similar VC10 incidents around that time. IIRC there was a problem wth the brake return line which could allow the brakes to pressurise with the parking brake off.
I believe one aircraft came to a grinding halt on the runway intersection at Melbourne, to the considerable displeasure of the airport authorities and, I imagine, not a few would-be air travellers in the State of Victoria.
It took some time for the problem to be diagnosed and for a while VC10 pilots were continually having their feet inspected! (to ensure heels were on the floor and away from the brake pedals on landing).

Nothing to do with the tragic accident at Addis, though.

If I recall correctly the pax in the Addis Ababa accident largely escaped but were then trapped up against the boundary fence, and the fuel fire then spread across the intervening ground and overwhelmed them.

Sadly WHBM, that is correct. Had it been daytime they might have seen the danger they were in.

Jabberwok. Thanks for the ICAO Digest reference. I'll try and obtain a copy through local sources.

Heathrow Director. Your photo turned out surprisingly clear and thanks.

Also to others thanks for the replies. I was considering writing a magazine article on the subject hence the reason for my query.

I have followed this thread with interest. I have a very short summary of this sad accident on my website as I was unable to find more information about it, but obviously I would very much appreciate the opportunity to add more to the story. I don't think that I could get my hand on that ICAO circular, but if anyone does and would be able to provide a copy or scan I could perhaps use that to add to the information on my site. Also Centaurus if this does evolve into an article could you let me know?

My main goal is to provide information about the VC10, there are no commercial links here. It's just a hobby that got out of hand ;).

(My website can be found by clicking here)

Thanks!

Yeah, that's we all say...

That is a brilliant site Jhieminga, well done:ok: :ok:

Eastaf accident
 

Suggest you refer to East African: An Airline Story. The incident is dealt with in the book.

My sister and I flew on this very aircraft in January 1970 (Nairobi-Entebbe-Rome-LHR) and I still have the EAA information pack folder from the flight.
I have to say I always thought EAA were a very good airline

EAA VC10 crews had a great sense of humour too. One evening a colleague asked if they were ready to copy their clearance.. "Affirmative". So he put his mic next to his lunchbox and pounded out an "Afro-beat" type rhythym. The pilot immediately came back with "Say again the squawk".

Don't make 'em like that nowadays!

Definitely 5X-UVA? I think I recall EAA had 3 or 4 Super VC-10's.

They had 5 - including the last one built - though at the time it was maybe still to be delivered. My own last flight with EAA was also in Jan 1970 from Entebbe to London, maybe even the same one.....as a trainee spotter I used to keep a logbook, but unfortunately lost track of it years ago. Some great memories though - it wasn't so much an airline, more like a club.

Absolutely 100% definite. I started collecting aircraft reggies in 1967 and I know this is going to sound a bit sad but in my log book of aircraft travelled on I also make a note of the seat number I occupy as well as the aircraft/airline/date/reg/route and anything unusal about the flight.

I also flew on BEA Vanguard G-APEC from Turnhouse to Heathrow 8 months before it went down over Belgium in October 1971.

http://www.btinternet.com/~simon.gur...AVC10small.JPG
5X-UVA
Picture postcard taken from their inflight info pack when I flew with EAA in 1967 from Aden to Nairobi on Comet 5Y-AAA.
Clint.

5H-MOG. Rare EGGP visitor.
http://www.homepages.mcb.net/bones/W...H-MOG_VC10.jpg

Beautiful aircraft.

british aircraft
 

the british have made the best looking aircraft in the world.the vc10 which i first traveled on to australia back in 1973 5 stops.the viscount and the one eleven which passed over my house on its maiden flight also the ambasador what a beutiful aircraft.sorry i have to dry my eyes.

I have heard it said that the VC10 was the fastest airliner flying until Concorde first took to the air - and since 2003 it is again! Does anybody disagree?

The CV990 Coronado held that accolade, I thought.

I thought the Trident was also faster than the VC-10... However the dear old Funbus has outlasted them all, unless any CV-990s are still airworthy?

I think there would be only 2 contenders for potentially airworthy 990's:

N8357C stored at El Paso for some years, which used to regularly run it engines but hasn't for some time apparently. There were moves afoot to save this aircraft from scrapping recently.

EC-BZO - last of the Spantax 990's still stored in a remote corner of Palma. This one looks well negelcted and would probably need plenty of work(i.e. cash)

There's one at Mojave that looks in reasonable condition :

http://www.btinternet.com/~philip.mo...2_201139-1.JPG

There's a beautifully preserved Swissair example at the Swiss Transport Museum in Lucerne, but they would never be persuaded to fly it again!
kostet zuviel geld, gal!

Yes you're right.
The piccie doesn't want to show, but I think you're referring the ex. APSA one that's the oldest surviving 990. Might be possible to get it airworthy but it's been there for many years.

Actually - thinking about it the heavily modified NASA 990 that was retired a few years ago from Shuttle gear testing duty was probably the last 990 to fly, so it's probably the closest of the surviving 990's to airworthy

Getting it to a runway would be the hardest thing, since they floated it to the museum on a barge, minus fin from an airfield across the lake :)

I remember seeing that Coronado at Mojave in 1999, and some of the TWA 880s were still there too. Passed through El Paso the following year coutesy Southwest, but don't recall one there. Blimey, we're well off topic now.

I lived in Kenya (aged 8) at the time of the accident at Addis... a family friend was one of the victims, on her way home to London on a shopping trip I think. I'm glad I didn't know (or understand) the full circumstances of the crash at the time...

It's also missing the outboard sections of the wings, and possibly one or two other somewhat vital parts !

Just to add another personal note on the Addis crash. I also lived in Kenya at the time and remember it as a 12 year old due to fly out from Nairobi soon afterwards. It was one of the flights used by parents to fly their children back to UK for school, known to many of us as 'Lollipop' flights. Many of my contemporaries where on that flight. I recall accounts of some very brave individuals amongst the survivors who did great things to save some of the children.

I do not recall the source of the information but I remember reading that a loading hook had fallen off the previously departing flight. The VC10 hit it and suffered tyre loss (I thought it was the starboard undercarriage), followed by failure of the starboard engines due to debris ingestion. It may have been a report that was published in the Daily Nation or The (East African) Standard.

Survivor
 

My grand-aunt told me today about this accident (so I googled it and found this page). Her husband was on the plane and survived the crash. He was in the middle of the plane and it was cut off a few rows in front of him, allowing him to escape. Must have been horrible as many children in the rear of the plane burnt to death...

I can remember reading in an issue of the Guiness book of records that the Trident 2 was the fastest airliner. There were a couple ofl others that come to what I laughingly refer to as my mind. It listed the Canberra PR9 as the RAF's fastest non-afterburning jet and the Pegasus as the RAF's most powerful non afterburning jet.
Sorry, topic wander - it's me age.

Flashback time!

Mention of the CV-990 reminded me of "Top Trumps" (remember the cards?).
When I was at boarding school we used to play aviation Top Trumps for hours at weekends. CV-990 was a good card to have! From memory only Concorde and the TU144(?) beat it in terms of top speed.

The VC-10 beat them all for beauty though:ok:

Oh how simple life was then!

Convair 990 :

I don't know whether the claimed Mach 0.91 speed of the Cv990 is the design speed or what it actually achieved, which was less. Failure to come up to design spec was one of the reasons behind its failure.

Looking at an American Airlines timetable for 1965, when it was in full operation alongside a large 707 fleet and the first 727s, it is apparent that on sectors where different types are scheduled there is no difference in timetable time allowed between the Convair and its Boeing counterparts. Even the 727 kept up with it on routes like New York to Chicago.

Perhaps the most surprising thing is how much times have expanded on these routes nowadays; New York to Chicago is around 2 hrs 00 min by all types (one 707 in 1 hour 57 min), whereas today in the American timetable the standard allowance is 2 hrs 40 min. What with much shorter turnround times in the old days as well, those 1965 jets were off the gate again and on their way on westward by the time current types would be arriving.

I was informed that BOAC used to cruire the VC10 at .86 to .88 I was told. Fast, but others were up there as well. The 747 typically cruises at .86.

pjac
 

The NASA 990 was purchased from Garuda. An American crew test flew the 'plane when it came out of the hangar at Jakarta-then flew it to Hong Kong/HAECO to have the resultants snags of the machine attended to, prior to flying it back to the States.

5X-UVA...

I recall sitting on the Brooklands Racetrack embankment (Weybridge) watching her first engine runs.

Lunchtime at Brooklands Technical College...a quick walk down to the river, scamble up the embankment to get a view of the airfield, eat sandwiches, wait for "Bournemouth Belle" to scurry past, then dash back in time for afternoon lectures...happy days!

I see that this thread has resurfaced. I have updated the information regarding this accident on my site based on the aforementioned ICAO digest:
Incidents and Accidents

5X-UVA
 

A personal note. I always felt an affinity for UVA as I was fortunate enough to be at Brooklands when she took off on her maiden flight to Wisley in 1966. Somewhere under a vast pile of my lifes's collection of bits and pieces is my old reggie spotting log book with the exact date. One day I'll dig it out.

BAC used to do guided factory tours of their adjoining Weybridge works on Saturday mornings which you could go on for free if you wrote a letter showing interest and, on one of my my days (I went twice as I found it so interesting), UVA's maiden take off was a bonus highlight. The tour was fascinating in itself as VC10s (mainly the RAF ones from the part cancelled BOAC order if I recall) plus Concorde fuselage sections were in production there at the time.

However, the sight and sound (aaahh Conways!) of 5X-UVA, resplendent in that beautiful (then brand spanking new) EAA scheme, roaring south away from the rail embankment (they had to stop the trains whenever there was a take off to avoid jet blast blowing a passing Southern Region train from the vertical) is something I will never forget. Sadly I got no photos as cameras were banned from the factory tours for obvious reasons.

The terrible fate of that beautiful bird and, worse, its innocent occupants just a few years later is very sad.